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,.>Si<Z  Turner  in  the  Newburgh  Journal. 
IF 


AT  THE  COUNTER  AND  THE  SHOW  WINDOW 


for  surer  diagnosis.  If  these  terms  cannot 
unended  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  association, 
Late  medical  service  is  to  be  organized,  which 
yd-George  has  sketched  as  follows  as  applied 
town  of  200,000  inhabitants : 

At  the  head  of  the  service  would  be  a prin- 
al  medical  officer,  who  would  be  responsible 
the  working  of  the  service  and  .would  be  not 
y a skilled  clinician  thoroughly  competent  to 
ervise  and  appreciate  the  work  of  his  subordi- 
but  also  a highly  efficient  administrator, 
lediately  under  him  would  be  a staff  of  skilled 
cialists,  who  would  help  the  general  prac- 
oners  of  the  service  in  any  case  of  difficulty, 
en  would  come  the  general  practitioners  of 
i service,  of  whom  some  would  be  junior  prac- 
lioners,  and  others  senior  practitioners  of  wide 
perience.  These  would  work  on  an  organized 
F stem,  proper  provision  being  made  for  night 
lls  and  other  emergencies,  and  they  would  be 
^iHsisted  by  an  efficient  staff  of  nurses.  Their 
'%•  rk  would  be  done  under  competent  supervision, 
i J they  would  be  able  promptly  to  secure  skilled 
^ ~ istance  in  cases  of  difficulty.  Such  a service 
_woihld  naturally  work  in  close  co-operation  with 

I 'he  public  health  authority  and  the  education  au- 
hority.” 

M The  London  Nation,  commenting  on  the  pro- 
P(,sals  of  the  government,  even  as  they  now  stand, 
alls  them  undeniably  generous.  They  would 
insure  an  income  of  $2,450  for  every  thousand 
insured  persons,  which  sum  includes  extras  and 

December  14,  1912. 


mileage.  It  is  estimated  that  one  doctor  could 
well  do  the  necessary  work  in  a village  of  moder- 
ate size  which,  with  surrounding  hamlets,  might 
number  two  thousand  souls.  His  income  would 
be  increased  by  at  least  a part  of  the  6d.  allowed 
for  additional  drugs  if  necessary,  and  there  is 
also  the  maternity  benefit,  a part  of  which  goes 
to  the  doctors  for  their  services. 

The  Nation  predicts  that  for  the  doctors  to 
continue  resistance  and  thus  permit  the  inaugura- 
tion of  a state  service  will  spell  ruin  to  their  as- 
sociation, a collapse  of  the  organization,  and  an' 
internecine  war,  the  effects  of  which  will  endure 
for  years.  Acceptance  of  the  terms  with  such 
amendments  as  the  government  can  afford  to  ac- 
cede to,  even  though  it  involves  a surrender  of 
some  minor  details,  means,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
quote  the  Nation,  a triumphant  and  early  success 
of  the  largest  measure  of  social  reform  that  Eng- 
land has  ever  seen. 

DOPE,  DIPLOMACY  AND 
A DELIBERATIVE  CONGRESS 

In  his  first  message  to  Congress  this  year, 
President  Taft  called  especial  attention  to  the 
fact  that  Congress  has  been  overnegligent  in  its 
attitude  toward  the  anti-narcotic  legislation  which 
has  been  before  it  for  some  time,  the  passage  of 
which  he  recommended  in  an  earlier  communica- 
tion. The  situation  is  a curious  one,  and 

319 


THE  SURVEY 


320 


illustrates  the  slow  acting  nature  of  the  federal 
law-making  body.  Moreover,  it  is  an  internation- 
ally embarrassing  one,  since  this  government  took 
the  initiative  in  the  International  Opium  Con- 
ference of  two  years  ago,  and  is  now  affording 
the  spectacle  of  refusing  to  do  its  share  of  work 
in  the  establishment  of  a reform  which  its  diplo- 
matic representatives  have  ardently  advocated. 

There  are  now  before  the  lower  House  two 
bills  recommended  by  the  International  Confer- 
ence. Both  these  measures  were  introduced  in 
June,  1912,  by  Representative  Harrison  of  New 
York.  One  provides  that  a heavy  internal  rev- 
enue tax  shall  be  levied  upon  smoking  opium 
manufactured  in  the  United  States ; the  other  im- 
poses a tax  upon  and  regulates  the  production, 
manufacture,  and  distribution  of  opium,  mor- 
phia, coca  leaves,  cocaine,  chloral,  cannabis,  their 
salts,  derivatives,  or  preparations.  It  is  believed 
by  experts  that  the  passing  of  these  bills  would  do 
much,  to  use  President  Taft’s  words,  ‘to  correct 
the  deplorable  narcotic  evil  in  the  United 
States.”  He  further  points  out  that  they  have 
behind  them  “not  only  the  moral  sentiment  of  the 
country,  but  the  practical  support  of  all  the  legi- 
timate trade  interests  likely  to  be  affected.” 

BOOKS  AND 
PRISONERS 

Plans  are  on  foot  for  the  establishment  by 
the  New  York  Public  Library  of  carefully 
selected  branch  libraries  in  the  penal  institutions 
of  the  city.  In  many  of  these  the  inmates  re- 
main only  a short  time,  but  there  are  at  least  six 
in  which  residence  is  for  a period  long  enough  to 
make  consecutive  reading  among  well-selected 


Decembe1 


14 


:ity 


books  quite  possible.  It  is  not  unusual  for 
libraries  to  maintain  “traveling  libraries” — set$  of 
books  regularly  replaced  by  other  sets — in  fails 
or  prisons,  but  so  far  as  is  known,  no  place  has 
yet  established  actual  branches  such  as  are  scat- 
tered about  the  larger  cities  for  use  by  local 
neighborhoods.  Various  plans  for  the  super- 
vision of  the  proposed  branches  have  been  Sug- 
gested, one  being  the  appointment  of  a superin- 
tendent to  have  general  charge  of  all  with  “trus- 
ties” as  librarians  in  each  branch. 

The  need  of  the  man  in  prison  for  wholesome 
and  informing  reading  matter,  and  the  deplorable 
scarcity  in  our  prisons  of  books  answering  that 
description,  as  well  as  the  availability  of  trasny 
or  unsuitable  material,  are  forcibly  brought  outS 
by  Miss  Curtis  elsewhere  in  this  issue.  An  in- 
teresting corroboration  of  her  conclusions  is  fur-' 
nished  by  an  intensive  study  made  recently  by 
Frederick  W.  Jenkins,,  librarian  of  the  New  York* 
School  of  Philanthropy  library,  of  some  of  the 
penal  institutions  in  New  York  and  read  at  tne 
recent  meeting  of  the  New  York  Library  Asso- 
ciation at  Niagara  Falls.  Comparison  was  made, 
at  this  conference  between  the  prison  library  and 
the  prison  school,  which  in  many  places  has  been 
raised  to  a reasonable  degree  of  excellence.  The 
prisons  of  New  York  state  have  paid  citizen  in- 
structors in  charge  of  their  schools.  Yet  it  was 
pointed  out  that  the  library  is  often  guarded  by 
an  ignorant  convict  who  exercises  his  small 
power  autocratically.  Not  only  the  place  of  long 
detention  needs  books,  it  was  said  ; the  men  in  the 
jails  must  be  allowed  to  read  also.  Here  was  de- 
clared to  be  a splendid  field  for  co-operation  with 
local  public  libraries. 

Mr.  Jenkins  found  that  the  books  at  the  work- 
house  and  the  penitentiary  on  Blackwell’s  Island 
were  the  best  of  the  collections,  but  still  nearly 
worthless.  Of  the  650  books  in  these  two  places 
the  only  ones  of  value,  he  declares,  are  a few 
novels  given  by  the  New  York  Public  Library. 
Fully  90  per  cent,  he  goes  on, 


“are  of  the  Sunday  school  story  type  of  fifty  years 
ago.  They  have  been  donated  by  persons  at  the 
time  of  some  house-cleaning  or  house-moving 
period — The  Next  World  Interviewed;  Angel’s 
Song;  Little  Prudy’s  Dotty  Dimple;  School  Girl’s 
Garland  (published  in  1864)  ; Above  Rubies,  a 
Memorial  of  Christian  Gentlewomen;  Which: 
Right  or  Left  (published  in  1859)  ; Thoughts  on 
the  Death  of  Little  Children  (published  in  1861) ; 
How  Readest  Thou  (published  in  1854)  ; Violet’s 
Idol;  Wheat  or  Chaff  (published  in  1853). 

After  expressing  the  hope  that  the  time  is  near 
at  hand  when  the  person  in  charge  will  have 
power  to  destroy  as  well  as  to  save  books  intend- 
ed for  prison  readers,  Mr.  Jenkins  utters  this 
anathema : 

“I  trust  some  dire  end  awaits  those  people  who 
send  their  gifts,  often  utterly  worthless  material. 


BROADENING  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 


321 


?912 

to  the  prison  and  the  reformatory.  There  is 
nothing  worse  than  this,  unless  it  is  the  act  of 
him  who  goes  in  persQn  and  distributes  thousands 
of  sheets  of  religious  literature,  reminding  the 
man  to  whom  it  is  given  of  the  number  of  talents 
which  he  has  wasted.  I have  listened  to  the 
flatulent  remarks  of  such  people.  Men  and  wo- 
men of  this  stamp  and  the  books  which  they  give 
constitute  the  most  serious  menace  to  good  work 
among  prison  libraries.  Much  of  the  so-called 
religious  literature  distributed  is  absolutely 
worthless,  unreadable  by  the  inmates,  and  repre- 
sents sheer  waste  of  time  and  energy  on  the  part 
of  the  distributors.  Worse  than  this,  the  broad- 
cast distribution  of  leaflet  and  pamphlet  makes 
extra  work  for  the  prison  officials  It  is  thrown 
unread  on  the  floor  and  adds  hugely  to  the  waste 
matter  that  must  be  removed.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  the  warden  does  not  welcome  the  gener- 
al diffusion  of  literature?  All  this  should  be 
stopped,  and  no  distribution  made  except  through 
the  library.” 

In  answer  to  the  question,  What  books  are 
really  needed?  Mr.  Jenkins  enumerates  three 
kinds ; first,  those  aiming  to  teach  English  to  for- 
eigners. This  applies  especially,  of  course,  to  in- 
stitutions where  there  is  a considerable  percent- 
age of  immigrants,  such  as  the  prison  on  Black- 
well’s Island,  where  there  are  many  Italians  and 
Germans.  Not  a single  book  teaching  English  to 
Italians  is  to  be  found  there,  yet  the  half  dozen 
German  books  have  been  read  out  of  their  covers. 
Mr.  Jenkins’s  second  suggestion  is  vocational 
books,  dealing  with  plumbing,  stenography,  car- 
pentry, etc.  It  is  for  these  two  classes,  he  finds, 
that  there  is  the  greatest  demand  from  prisoners. 
Third,  he  emphasizes  good  novels — “novels  of 
real  life  without  a moral  printed  on  every  page, 
dealing. with  real  people  under  real  conditions.” 
Finally,  he  urges  that  the  desires  and  tastes  of 
the  men  themselves  be  studied.  Let  the  library 
represent  an  intelligent  response  to  an  ascer- 
tained demand.  Three  hundred  volumes,  he 
thinks,  is  enough  for  the  shelves  of  any  prison. 
A printed  catalogue  should  go  into  every  cell,  and 
it  should  contain  an  invitation  to  the  prisoner  to 
make  his  reading  wants  known.  In  conclusion  he 
says : 

“Of  course,  no  appeal,  however  sincere,  can 
reach  all  or  even  the  great  majority,  but  it  may 
go  far.  I am  told  that  the  men  sometimes  muti- 
late the  books;  so  do  the  readers  of  any  public 
library.  I am  told  that  they  underline  certain 
passages  of  personal  interest;  not  all  *who  do  this 
are  in  jail.  And  finally  I am  told  that  the  men 
show  their  disapproval  for  some  of  the  literature 
handed  out  to  them  by  spitting  in  the  book  and 
calmly  returning  it.  In  polite  society  this  could 
not  be  countenanced,  but  after  an  examination 
of  the  library  on  Blackwell’s  Island,  I am  of  opin- 
ion that  such  an  act  shows  a valuable  power  of 
discrimination;  it  is  proof  that  the  man  doing  it 
:1s  capable  of  and  deserving  of  something  better.” 


Philadelphia  Star 
THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHRISTMAS 
As  felt  by  the  tired  cash  girl 


BROADENING  INDUSTRIAL 
EDUCATION 

WINTHROP  D.  LANE 

Any  change  in  our  educational  system  is  the 
vital  concern  of  the  social  worker.  Among  the 
changes  proposed  at  the  present  time,  none  is  per- 
haps more  drastic  than  the  one  vaguely  described 
as  industrial  or  vocational  education.  The  phil- 
osophy back  of  this  suggestion,  and  others  grow- 
ing out  of  the  same  observed  social  needs,  is 
that  education,  taken  in  its  broadest  sense,  is  co- 
extensive with  environment.  In  this  view,  edu- 
cation ceases  to  be  a mere  preparation  for  life 
and  becomes  life  itself,  to  use  a phrase  made 
current  by  Prof.  John  Dewey.  It  is  this  phil- 
osophy which  is  increasingly  leading  educators, 
social  workers  and  others  to  try  to  recast  the 
public  educational  system  so  that  it  will  offer  to 
a maximum  degree  the  actual  environment  of 
life. 

Where  in  this  scheme  of  recasting  does  voca- 
tional education  take  its  place?  Distinction 
should  be  made  between  what  are  called  prevo- 
cational  and  vocational  instruction.  One  of  the 
proposed  means  of  securing  greater  harmony  be- 
tween the  public  school  system  and  the  actual 
environment  of  life  is  the  making  over  of  the 
elementary  curriculum  to  include,  side  by  side 
with  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic,  training  in 
manual  dexterity,  in  ' the  purposes  and  use  of 
tools,  and  perhaps  in  some  of  the  elementary  pro- 
cesses which  may  be  found  to  underlie  modern 


322 


THE  SURVEY 


December  14 


trades.  The  need  for  and  nature  of  such  pre- 
vocational  instruction,  the  purpose  of  which 
should  be  not  to  fit  for  specific  vocations  but 
only  to  secure  a more  all-round  development  of 
the  child  during  the  age  of  eight  or  ten  to  four- 
teen, were  discussed  in  the  recent  conference 
held  in  New  York.1 

Another  proposed  means  is  that  of  real  voca- 
tional education,  the  purpose  of  which  shall  be 
to  fit  for  successful  wage-earning  occupations, 
and  which  shall  begin  where  elementary  educa- 
tion stops  for  large  numbers  of  American  chil- 
dren, namely  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  and  con- 
tinue for  two  or  four  years,  as  may  be  found 
necessary. 

This  second  proposal  was  thrashed  out 
at  the  sixth  annual  meeting  of  the  National 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Industrial  Educa- 
tion, last  week  in  Philadelphia.  In  spite  of  the 
phrase  “industrial  education”  in  the  title  of  the 
society,  it  was  vocational  education  which  was 
discussed  and  which  was  defined  to  include  the 
following  three  forms  of  specialized  training,  the 
controlling  purposes  of  which  are  to  fit  for  use- 
ful occupations;  industrial  education,  designed 
to  meet  the  need  of  the  manual  worker  in  the 
trades  and  industries;  agricultural  education, 
which  fits  for  occupations  connected  with  the  till- 
age of  the  soil  and  the  care  of  domestic  animals; 
and  household  arts  education. 

The  facts  showing  the  need  for  instruction  of 
this  sort  are  substantially  the  same  as  those  cited 
to  prove  the  need  for  prevocational  instruction, 
namely  the  glaring  unfitness  of  boys  and  girls 
who  leave  school  at  fourteen  to  do  the  work 
which  nearly  all  of  them  go  into,  with  the  con- 
sequent shifting  from  job  to  job  where  nothing 
is  learned  and  advance  is  impossible.  A hopeful 
sign  at  Philadelphia  was  that  these  facts  were 
taken  for  granted.  No  one  thought  it  necessary 
to  demonstrate  the  need  for  vocational  education. 

Few  thought  it  necessary,  moreover,  to  ques- 
tion the  purpose  of  the  education  to  be  given. 
Debate  was  chiefly  over  the  machinery  for  ad- 
ministering it  and  the  training  of  teachers  to 
impart  it.  It  was  generally  assumed  that  the 
purposes  of  vocational  education,  beginning  at 
the  age  of  fourteen,  shall  be  to  fit  for  specific 
and  limited  occupations,  such  as  plumbing,  tin- 
smithing,  dairy  farming,  etc.-  There  was  little, 
if  any,  reference  to  the  suggestion  that  perhaps 
what  the  boy  or  girl  of  fourteen,  who  has  had 
only  such  elementary  instruction  as  the  present 
school  system  affords,  most  needs  is  greater  train- 
ing of  the  brain  through  the  hand,  greater  train- 
ing of  observation,  of  ingenuity,  of  imagination 
and  even  of  logical  thought  through  a general 
acquaintance  with  materials  and  machines.  It 
seemed  also  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  one’s 
bent  is  quite  determinable  at  the  age  of  fourteen, 

*See  The  Survey  for  November  23. 


\ 

in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Prof.  George  M.  Forbes 
of  the  University  of  Rochester  described  how 
only  fourteen  out  of  eighty-three  boys  who  had 
received  fairly  adequate  instruction  in  specific 
vocations  in  a Rochester  school  were  later  found 
to  be  following  the  trades  which  they  had  there 
learned.  Criticism  of  the  discussion  on  these 
grounds  was  accompanied  by  the  further  sugges- 
tion that  even  if  we  are  to  train  youths  of  four- 
teen for  specific  occupations,  we  have  not  made  a 
sufficient  study  of  industry  to  decide  what  should 
be  the  content  of  vocational  courses,  nor  just 
what  it  is  that  rapidly  changing  trades  require 
to  be  taught;  the  point  being  that  it  is  perhaps  un- 
wise to  set  up  an  elaborate  scheme  for  teaching 
something  until  you  know  what  you  are  to  teach. 
The  answer  made  to  this  was  that  a beginning 
must  be  made,  as  it  already  has  been  made  where 
such  schools  have  been  established,  by  teaching 
what  is  actually  done  now  in  the  factory,  the  shop 
and  on  the  farm,  and  that  the  broader  education- 
al content  of  the  courses  will  th$n  be  worked  out 
as  industry  is  more  intensively  analyzed  and  the 
common  elements  of  trades  are  discovered. 

Among  the  teachers,  school  administrators,  so- 
cial workers,  manufacturers  and  law-makers 
gathered  together  in  Philadelphia  there  was  prac* 
tical  unanimity  of  opinion  that  vocational  educa- 
tion aiming  to  fit  for  trades  must  be  publicly  pro- 
vided for  and  that  this  provision  must  be  made 
jointly  by  the  states  and  local  communities.  In  a 
statement  of  principles  advocated  by  C.  A.  Pros- 
ser, secretary  of  the  society,  and  later  adopted  by 
the  members,  it  was  held  that  local  communities 
should  be  permitted,  if  they  so  desire,  to  initiate 
and  maintain  schools  entirely  apart  from  state 
support  and  supervision,  yet  it  was  declared  that 
state  aid  would  be  found  necessary  to  stimulate 
and  encourage  them.  The  amount  of  state  aid 
should  be,  in  general,  sufficient  to  furnish  this 
encouragement  and  to  justify  participation  on 
the  part  of  the  state  in  control  and  administra- 
tion, but  not  large  enough  to  sacrifice  local  in- 
itiative. Both  Mr.  Prosser  and  Edwin  G.  Cooley,, 
former-  superintendent  of  schools  in  Chicago, 
thought  that  the  best  results  are  secured  when 
the  local  community  is  required  to  furnish  the 
school  and  equipment  and  pay  one-half  of  the 
operating  expenses.  This  also  was  embodied  in 
the  statement  adopted. 

Chief  among  the  questions  relating  to  the  ma- 
chinery for  teaching  vocations  was  that  which 
asked  whether  it  is  better  to  set  up  vocational 
schools  as  integral  parts  of  the  present  secondary 
school  system,  or  as  a dual  system  provided  for 
by  distinct  laws,  under  distinct  supervision, 
housed  separately,  and  having  nothing  in  common 
with  the  present  school  system  except  public 
support.  John  A.  Lapp,  secretary  of  the  Indiana 
Commission  on  Industrial  and  Agricultural  Edu- 


1912 


WHAT  THE  CONVICT  READS 


cation  pointed  out  that  Massachusetts  began  sev- 
eral years  ago  with  separate  schools  under  separ- 
ate boards,  both  state  and  local,  but  changed  to 
permit  either  a separate  school  or  a school  as 
an  integral  part  of  her  former  system.  Wiscon- 
sin has  adopted  the  separate  school  idea  and  such 
a plan  is  proposed  in  Illinois.  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Ohio  and  Maine  on  the  other  hand,  make 
the  work  a part  of  their  old  systems.  This  is 
the  recommendation  of  the  Indiana  commission 
of  inquiry  appointed  last  year.1  On  behalf  of  the 
separate  school  Mr.  Prosser  urged  that  that  plan 
leaves  the  vocational  school  freer  at  all  times  to 
realize  its  dominant  aim -of  preparing  for  definite 
occupations.  In  justification  of  joint  adminis- 
tration Mr.  Lapp  thought  that  it  is  easier  to 
modify  existing  school  courses  to  meet  vocational 
» needs  than  to  create  new  courses  and  that  greater 
harmony  in  public  education  will  result.  The  one- 
system  plan  is  favored  by  the  majority  of  educa- 
tors connected  with  the  present  school  system,  a 
notable  exception  being  Mr.  Cooley.  The  trend 
seems  to  be  in  its  direction. 

Whatever  the  system  of  administration,  the 
vocational  school,  it  was  insisted,  must  approxi- 
mate the  actual  conditions  of  the  workshop,  the 
home  and  the  farm.  If  it  be  an  industrial  school, 
it  must  forego  the  formal  air  of  the  school  room 
and  realize  the  freedom  which  surrounds  the 
bench  and  lathe.  In  the  accomplishment  of  this, 
of  course,  the  teacher  will  be  the  vital  factor,  and 
so  there  was  earnest  debate  over  the  kind  of 
teacher  required  for  this  new  type  of  instruction. 

Emphasis  was  laid  on  the  need  of  teachers  who 
can  make  competent  craftsmen  of  their  pupils. 
Mary  Schenck  Woolman,  president  of  the  Wo- 
men’s Educational  and  Industrial  Union,  Boston, 
and  Florence  M.  Marshall,  principal  of  the  Man- 
hattan Trade  School  for  Girls,  New  York,  who 
spoke  from  the  standpoint  of  girls,  together  with 
David  Snedden,  commissioner  of  education  for 
Massachusetts,  and  Charles  R.  Allen,  agent  of  the 
Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Education,  who 
spoke  from  the  standpoint  of  boys,  were  united 
in  the  opinion  that  so  far  no  satisfactory  method 
of  producing  such  teachers  has  been  worked  out. 
“At  present,”  said  Mr.  Snedden,  “we  are  obtain- 
ing teachers  much  as  the  early  settlers  obtained 
their  food — we  are  trusting  to  an  accidental  and 
variable  supply  produced  by  no  effort  of  our 
own.”  All  four  of  these  speakers  agreed  that 
they  can  not  be  secured  by  drawing  on  the  regu- 
lar public  schools  and  giving  a little  additional 
training  to  the  instructors  there  found,  nor  can 
the  present  normal  schools  turn  them  out.  They 
must  be  trained  specifically  to  meet  the  pedagogi- 
cal demands  of  the  vocational  school,  which  has 
problems  peculiar  to  itself.  We  shall  have  to  go 
direct  to  the  industries  themselves,  said  Mr.  Sned- 
den, and  select  experienced  workers  with  a gift 

1When  ready,  copies  of  their  report  may  be  secured 
from  Mr.  Lapp,  State  Library,  Indianapolis,  Indiana. 


\ 

>323 

for  teaching.  For  such  workers  we  can  then 
provide  evening  courses  of  instruction  in  such 
pedagogical  problems  as  the  organization  of 
courses,  methods  of  instruction  and  class  man- 
agement. Attendance  at  these  classes  can  then 
be  followed  by  employment  as  assistant  teachers 
in  actual  vocational  schools.  Thus  a normal* 
training  will  be  added  to  craftsmanship.  In 
the  evident  distress  over  the  failure  so  far  to  se- 
cure even  good  instructors  in  trades,  it  seemed 
to  be  regarded  as  unimportant  that  the  teacher 
should  be  alert  to  the  cultural  value  of  all  work; 
that  he  should  keep  his  students’  minds  open  to 
the  onward  movements  in  the  conservation  of  ma- 
terial and  in  mechanical  invention;  that  his  per- 
sonality might  become  as  vital  a factor  in  suc- 
cess as  that  of  the  teacher  of  history,  literature 
and  language. 

A final  point  under  discussion  was  one  which 
has  long  been  the  subject  for  debate  in  connection 
with  industrial  schools  in  reformatories.  What 
shall  be  the  output  of  the  vocational  classes  and 
how  shall  it  be  disposed  of?  Shall  it  be  com- 
mercial, and  sold  on  the  open  market  in  compe- 
tition with  other  products,  the  proceeds  of  the 
sale  being  used  to  defray  school  expenses? 
Helen  R.  Hildreth,  director  of  vocational  train- 
ing for  the  Women’s  Educational  and  Industrial 
Union,  Boston,  and  E.  H.  Fish,  director  of  the 
Worcester  Trade  School  for  Boys,  Worcester, 
Massachusetts,  urged  that  only  by  making  com- 
mercial products  can  the  schools  supply  those  con-» 
ditions  to  which  the  successful  wage-earner 
must  be  accustomed  when  he  leaves.  The  work 
of  the  school  must  be  put  upon  a business  basis, 
said  Mr.  Fish.  Miss  Hildreth  went  so  far  as  to 
insist  that  products  should  be  turned  out  for 
which  definite  orders  have  been  taken.  To  this 
Harry  S.  Bitting,  president  of  the  Williamson 
Free  School  of  Trades,  Pennsylvania,  objected 
that  when  a contract  is  entered  into,  the  fulfilling 
of  that  contract  then  becomes  the  absorbing  aim 
of  the  instructor  and  his  . attention  is  diverted 
from  the  primary  task  of  teaching.  Discussion 
at  Philadelphia  failed  to  bring  agreement  and  the 
question  is  evidently  an  open  one.  The  experi- 
ence of  our  prisons,  now  slowly  adopting  the  plan 
of  selling  their  products  back  to  the  state  and  its 
political  divisions,  may  hold  a suggestion  for  the 
vocational  schools  of  the  future  which  shall  find 
created  wealth  hanging  heavy  on  their  hands. 

WHAT  THE  CONVICT  READS 

FLORENCE  RISING  CURTIS 

Instructor  University  of  Illinois  Library  School 

There  are  about  fifty  thousand  men  and 
women  in  the  state  and  national  prisons 
and  reformatories  of  the  United  States.  Un- 
der the  operation  of  the  present  laws,  from  70 
to  80  per  cent  of  these  are  confined  from  one  to 
ten  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  they  will 


324 


THE  SURVEY 


come  out  into  the  world  again.  The  prison 
doors  are  opening  daily  to  the  man  who  is  going 
out  with  the  prison  label  still  upon  him,  for  the 
new  clothes  taken  from  the  piles  in  the  outfitting 
room  are  recognized  at  once  by  both  the  police- 
man and  the  saloon-keeper.  Ignorant,  untrained 
and  uncontrolled,  he  came  into  prison  chafing 
at  the  “hard  luck”  or  the  “spite”  which  had  put 
him  behind  the  bars.  Detaining  him  for  one  year 
or  for  ten  has  made  little  difference,  if  he  comes 
out  with  the  same  standards  of  conduct,  the 
same  ignorance  and  lack  of  control. 

When  the  evening  and  Sunday  hours  may  not 
be  spent  in  handicraft,  the  prisoner  eagerly 
avails  himself  of  the  opportunity  for  reading. 
The  circulation  per  capita  of  the  books  in  the 
prison  libraries  is  largely  in  excess  of  that  re- 
ported by  the  public  libraries  of  the  country. 
Books  serve  to  occupy  his  mind  during  the  long 
silent  hours  of  the  day;  the  scenes  are  lived 
over  again,  the  arguments  debated,  the  char- 
acters of  the  history,  biography  or  novel  are  real 
companions  to  these  men  taken  away  from 
neighborhood  and  family  life. 

If  the  prison  library  has  been  the  dumping 
ground  for  gifts  of  literary  rubbish,  if  the  books 
which  are  purchased  are  cheap  in  tone  as  well 
as  in  price,  if  the  language  is  vulgar,  the  char- 
acters and  situations  low  and  suggestive,  the 
prison  is  providing  bad  company  and  poor  ideals 
for  the  men  who  are  sent  there  for  correction 
and  reformation. 

A study  of  the  catalogues  of  twenty-three 
prison  libraries  shows  that  this  is  a matter  which 
should  receive  attention.  These  were  limited 
to  no  one  section  of  the  country,  eight  being  in 
the  East,  twelve  in  the  Middle  West,  two  in  the 
West  and  one  in  the  South.  With  few  excep- 
tions, they  are  far  below  the  grade  of  the  aver- 
age public  library  of  the  same  size ; the  classes 
of  history,  biography  and  travel,  which  should 
be  especially  strong,  are  often  filled  with  out-of- 
date  and  unreadable  books.  It  is  surprising  that 
detective  stories  figure  largely  in  the  fiction 
lists,  for  it  would  seem  dubious  policy  to  fur- 
nish stories  of  crime  which  suggest  ingenious 
plans  and  point  out  the  weak  spots  in  the  method 
of  their  execution. 

Books  which  emphasize  sensual  details  are 
surely  not  good  mental  food  for  men  taken  out 
of  normal  human  intercourse  and  shut  away  with 
their  thoughts,  yet  the  prison  libraries  contain 
the  novels  of  the  modern  “realistic”  writers : 
Lucas  Malet,  Robert  Herrick,  Robert  Hichens, 
David  Graham  Phillips,  Robert  W.  Chambers, 
George  Gibbs  and  many  others.  Elinor  Glyn’s 
Three  Weeks  is  probably  not  on  the  shelves  of 
a single  American  public  library,  but  it  is  listed 
in  three  of  the  twenty-three  catalogues  examined. 
Such  books  as  George  Moore’s  Evelyn  Innes  and 


Sister  Teresa,  Anatole  France’s  Red  Lily,  and 
Smollett’s  Peregrine  Pickle  and  Roderick  Ran- 
dom, interesting  and  often  harmless  to  some,  are 
of  questionable  moral  tone  for  such  readers. 
Fiction  of  inferior  merit,  with  characters  and 
situations  often  at  variance  with  real  life,  fills 
page  after  page  with  such  alluring  titled  as  Wife 
in  Name  Only,  Between  Two  Sins,  Maid,  Wife, 
or  Widow,  A Woman’s  Temptation,  Sharing 
Her  Crime,  Lost  for  a Woman,  The  Changed 
Brides,  and  A Beautiful  Fiend. 

The  make-up  of  the  prison  library  catalogue 
is  seldom  good;  of  those  examined,  only  fourteen 
were  classified  and  in  many  cases  the  divisions 
were  too  general  to  be  of  much  value.  Two 
were  arranged  only  by  author,  four  by  title  only ; 
two  had  no  authors  given,  and  one  of  these  was 
arranged  in  the  order  of  the  receipt  of  the 
books.  In  many  catalogues  the  printing  was 
poor  and  the  entries  inaccurate.  In  one,  the 
books  seemed  to  have  been  classified  by  the 
sound  of  the  title  as  the  section  of  “Religious 
Books”  included  The  Sorrows  of  Satan,  The 
Breath  of  the  Gods,  The  Conquest  of  Canaan, 
The  Little  Minister,  The  Choir  Invisible,  and 
The  Fruit  of  the  Tree. 

The  tabulation  which  follows  shows  the  result 
of  an  investigation  of  these  twenty-three  library 
catalogues,  applying  to  them  the  same  tests  that 
a librarian  would  use  in  judging  the  catalogues 
of  as  many  public  libraries.  In  the  cases  where 
a large  section  was  labelled  “Miscellaneous”  or 
“General,”  the  lists  were  gone  over  carefully,  in 
the  effort  to  decide  the  character  of  the  books 
which  belonged  to  each  particular  class  named 
in  the  table.  The  libraries  listing  no  foreign 
books  are  in  states  where  it  is  probable  that  some 
foreign  nationalities  are  represented  in  the 
prison  population. 


The  Libraries  of  Twenty-three  American  Prisons 


<C 


Character  of) 
Books 


^Number  of 
Libraries 


£ 

4> 


Religious  2 5 16 

Philosophy  and  Sociology  6 3 9 

Science  6 S*  3 12 

Technical  Arts  and  Trades..  12  3 3 

Essays,  Poetry,  Drama,  etc  5 6 10 

Travel  7.  4 12 

History  4 6 13 

Biography  3 3 17 

Encyclopaedias,  Dictionaries, 

etc 3 2 13 

Magazines  4 5 7 

Fiction  . : 2 6 15 

In  Foreign  Languages  ....  \0  6 6 


4 

5 9 

2 6 
5 3 

2 7 

10 

5 
32 

5 8 

7 4 

2 

11 


2 


These  libraries  have  received  in  bulk  a large 
number  of  the  old  Sunday  School  collections  of 
out-of-date  religious  and  temperance  books'; 
they  are  decidedly  lacking  in  readable  informa- 
tional literature — biography,  travel,  science  and 
books  on  present-day  invention  and  progress. 
Such  literature  is  especially  needed  h^re,  for  it 
is  the  experience  of  those  in  charge  that  prison 
men  tire  of  stories,  and  crave  more  solid  reading. 


worker  has  evidently  not  been  given  a free  hand. 
Many  excellent  printed  lists  are  available,  chief 
among  them  being  the  American  Library  Asso- 
ciation Catalogue  of  8,000  Books  ; the  1912  sup- 
plement containing  3,000  additional  titles;  and  a 
monthly  annotated  selection  of  best  books,  called 
the  A.  L.  A.  Book  List. 

The  last  report  of  the  General  Prisons  Board 
of  Ireland  shows  that  the  question  of  book  selec- 
tion is  a subject  for  consideration  there: 

Having  regard  to  the  importance  of  the  prison 
library  as  a factor  in  the  reformation  of  prisons, 
the  special  notice  of  prison  chaplains  and  gov- 
ernors has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  the 
morbid  and  immoral  tone  of  a great  proportion 
of  modern  English  society  novels  renders  them 
unsuitable  for  officers’  or  prisoners’  libraries, 
which  should  be  replenished  by  the  selection  of 
instructive  books  on  travel,  history,  biography, 
science,  etc.,  or  standard  English  novels  of  a 
healthy  tone. 

The  prison  of  tocj^y  is  not  intended  to  be 
merely  a place  of  punishment,  nor  a life  abode 
for  the  bad  characters  who  have  troubled  society. 
Every  man  who  leaves  prison  behind  should 
bring  to  his  new  life  a better  equipment  for 
earning  his  living,  better  standards  of  conduct, 
and  confidence  in  his  ability  to  make  good.  The 
books  he  has  read  will  play  no  small  part  in 
determining  whether  a man,  less  ignorant  and 
dangerous  than  when  he  went  in,  is  again  “on 
the  outside.” 


Books  on  the  technical  trades  are  being  added 
to  the  prison  libraries  in  very  fair  proportion. 
The  fiction  generally  makes  a poor  showing,  the 
quality  being  usually  inferior,  although  the 
quantity  is  in  good  proportion.  Detective 
stories  are  listed  in  every  catalogue  examined, 
the  number  of  such  books  ranging  from  three 
to  one  hundred  and  fifteen.  A large  amount  of 
the  fiction  was  evidently  furnished  by  the  book 
dealer  who  offered  tb  . lowest  bid,  for  literary 
“wall-flowers”  known  to  the  book  trade  as 
“plugs,”  form  a large  proportion  of  the  fiction 
lists. 

The  prison  libraries  need,  first  of  all,  trained 
librarians,  who  know  how  to  select  books  which 
provide  information  and  recreation,  how  to  care 
for  these  books,  and  how  to  get  them  read.  In 
several  states  of  the  Middle  West  an  institutional 
librarian  co-operates  with  the  board  which 
controls  the  charitable  and  penal  institutions.  It 
is  this  librarian’s  duty  to  visit  each  institution 
during  the  year,  in  order  to  assist  in  the  selection 
of  the  books,  to  classify  and  catalogue  them,  and 
to  train  the  officers  or  inmates  in  simple  and 
practical  library  methods.  If  the  employment 
of  special  librarians- is  at  present  impossible,  the 
library  commissions  of  the  several  states  stand 
ready  to  furnish  aia  in  the  selection  and  the 
cataloguing  of  the  books.  Several  of  the  best 
catalogues  show  that  such  assistance  has  been 
received,  although  in  some  cases  the  commission 

December  14,  1912. 


825 


326 


THE  SURVEY 


December  14 


INTERSTATE  IMMIGRATION, 
LAND  AND  LABOR 
PROBLEMS 

FRANCES  A.  KELLOR 

Chief  Investigator  Bureau  of  Industries  and  Immigration, 
New  York  Department  of  Labor 

Following  the  three  interests  represented  in  its 
organization  the  National  Conference  of  Immi- 
gration, Land  and  Labor  Officials,1  representing 
thirty-eight  states,  is  now  at  work  on  a federal 
bill  to  be  presented  to  the  new  administration, 
creating  in  the  department  of  labor,  which  it  is 
hoped/will  become  a fact  during  this  session  of 
Congress,  a bureau  of  distribution  which  will 
deal  with  interstate  immigration,  land  and  labor 
•problems,  and  which  will  co-operate  with  the 
various  states  in  their  work  within  state  limits. 

This  bureau  will  be  concerned  wholly  with 
matters  in  this  country.  In  matters  of 
immigration  it  will  include  the  supervision 
and  protection  of  admitted  immigrants  in 
transit  and  the  establishment  of  branches  of  the 
bureau  for  this  purpose  at  re-distribution  centers ; 
the  licensing  and  regulation  of  steamship  ticket 
agents  doing  an  interstate  business;  the  distri- 
bution of  school  children’s  names  from  ports  of 
entry  to  school  authorities,  and  the  investigation 
and  adjustment  of  interstate  complaints  and  dif- 
ficulties which  now  arise.  That  this  latter  field 
is  large  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  in  the  past 
year  the  New  York  State  Bureau  of  Industries 
and  Immigration  has  been  called  upon  in  hun- 
dreds of  cases  to  adjust  matters  between  resi- 
dents of  California  and  Pennsylvania,  and  be- 
tween the  North  and  South  in  such  matters  as 
steamship  tickets,  lost  baggage,  lost  relatives, 
colonization,  employment  contracts  made  in  the 
agencies  in  one  state  and  consummated  in  a far 
distant  state. 

In  the  matter  of  labor,  it  is  proposed  that  this 
new  bureau  shall  include  and  extend  the  work 
of  the  present  division  of  information,  which  now 
has  one  branch  office  in  New  York  for  distribut- 
ing labor;  shall  license  and  regulate  all  private 
agencies  doing  an  interstate  business,  and  shall 
favor  and  co-operate  with  state  free  employment 

JTlie  officers  and  executive  committee  for  1912-13 
elected  at  the  second  conference  of  the  organization  held 
in  Chicago  in  November  were : 

Honorary  President : T.  V?  Powderly  chief  of  the 
Federal  Division  of  Information,  Washington,  D. ' C. 

President:  John  R.  Commons,  meipber  Wisconsin  State 
Industrial  Commission,  Madison,  Wis. 

Vice-President : J.  F.  Denechaud,  secretary,  Louisiana 
State  Board  of  Immigration,  New  Orleans,  La. 

Treasurer : Charles  F.  Gettemy,  director,  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Statistics,  Boston  ; and 

Secretary  : Frances  A.  Keilor,  chief  investigator,  Bu- 
reau of  Industries  and  Immigration,  Department  of 
Labor,  New  York. 

Members  Executive  Committee : Robert  N.  Lynch, 
member  California  Immigration  Commission,  San  Fran- 
cisco ; John  Nugent,  commissioner  of  immigration  in  West 
Virginia,  Montgomery ; Charles  Harris,  director  Kansas 
Free  Employment  Agency,  Topeka. 


bureaus  in  fur" 
clearing  house 

The  enormoi 
land  and  colons 
ity  of  the  states  to  reach  settlers  and  farm 
laborers  make  it  necessary  for  this  proposed 
bureau  to  have  the  power  and  facilities  for  regis- 
tering and  furnishing  information  on  lands  of- 
fered for  sale.  The  bureau  is  also  confronted 
with  the  need  of  working  out  some  plan  of 
having  the  federal  government  adopt  a method 
of  providing  long-time,  low-interest  loans  to  set- 
tlers for  the  purpose  of  aiding  them  to  purchase 
land  and  make  improvements  on  it  or  to  dis- 
charge indebtedness  on  the  land.  It  also  pro- 
poses to  make  an  investigation  of  such  govern- 
mental methods  in  use  elsewhere. 

All  of  these  matters  are  interstate,  and  no 
existing  bureau  is  dealing  with  them.  They  are 
fast  becoming  difficult  problems  to  handle.  This 
bureau  will  have  the  opportunity  to  work  out  real 
measures  for  the  relief  of  congestion,  at  the 
same  time  safeguarding  the  persons  distributed 
and  making  state  connections  which  will  give 
them  a fair  chance  for  prosperity. 

In  its  program  for  state  activities  the  confer- 
ence set  itself  the  task  of  making  a*  study  of 
existing  governmental  agencies  in  the  states  and 
in  co-operation  with  state  authorities  to  secure 
sufficient  appropriations,  and  new  legislation  for 
whatever  is  needed.  It  will  endeavor  to  have 
established  bureaus  of  labor  where  none  exist, 
and  bureaus  of  immigration  where  needed.  It 
has  adopted  minimum  standards  for  the  establish- 
ment of  free  employment  agencies  and  the  regu- 
lation of  private  agencies.  It  is  also  at  work  on 
means  of  getting  the  settler  upon  the  land,  and 
of  safeguarding  him  in  his  purchases  and  set- 
tlement. In  this  respect  it  has  taken  up  the  mat- 
ter of  state  advertising,  the  registration  of  lands 
for  sale,  the  approval  of  form  of  contracts  for 
the  sale  of  land,  the  inspection  of  advertising  ma- 
terial and  prosecution  of  fraud  and  the  publica- 
tion of  accurate  information  concerning  the  land 
for  sale. 

The  need  of  a standard  and  the  extension  of 
this  state  work  in  order  that  there  may  be  co- 
operation between  the  federal  ancf  state  govern- 
ments, may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  no  state 
now  safeguards  purchasers  of  private  lands,  nor 
adequately  reaches  the  settler  through  its  pres- 
ent advertising.  Sixteen  states  have  free  em- 
ployment bureaus,  with  no  means  of  co-operation 
between  them;  eighteen  states  regulate  private 
employment  agencies,  though  in  nearly  one-half 
of  these  only  a license  fee  and  bond  is  required 
and  there  is  no  inspection  provided  for  enforce- 
ment of  the  law;  thirty-fwe  states  are  dealing 
with  the  problem  of  labor  with  the  greatest  vari- 
ation in  scope,  powers  a /id  appropriations.  One 
state  has  an  industrial  commission;  six  have 


2 0619 


9756 


